When you get to keep an angel with you
by SkySong92
Summary: Emmett and Rosalie, all canon. Their story before Twilight, starting with Emmett and the bear. Rated T for some mild language and angst.


**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or events here. They belong to Stephenie Meyer.**

**AN: Hello all! So, I'm SkySong, and you might know me from _I'll Make a Believer Out of You_. So, first off, I'm not exactly sure where this is going to go. It might just be a one-shot, but I might add in little snippets from later on in various viewpoints. This is purely canon, Emmett and Rosalie. It started out as me wondering what exactly was going through Rose's mind as she rescues Emmett. Writing this has actually made me a lot more sympathetic to her. :)**

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The light breeze, turned to a strong wind by the speed of my run, flung my long, golden hair out behind me. I loved the feeling of the wind in my hair, and the velvety ground beneath my bare feet. Running, I mused as I flew through the forest, was one of the few things I liked about this new life. Actually, it was one of only two things. Running was one, and the other was fast approaching ahead of me.

I slackened my pace slightly as I leapt over the shallow, glassy clear stream, to better admire the other thing I actually liked about this life. My own reflection.

My reflection gave me pleasure, but it was a pleasure tinted with anger and despair.

I had always been beautiful, even as a human, I had been striking, a cut above the other girls in Rochester. It had won me a fiancée at only eighteen. It had also brought me this. I loved my beauty, but also hated it, for what the attention it brought when I was human had caused. Girls were possessions back then, and the more beautiful, the more valuable and prized the possession. I had loved that. But I also learned, the hard way, too late, that possessions are replaceable and disposable.

I also loved my beauty now. No one, human or immortal alike, could rival me. It would make Aphrodite hide her face in shame. But again, I hated it, because it was a marker of what I was. I was the most beautiful creature on earth, but I had paid dearly for it.

There were two things I loved about this life, but many, many more that I despised. I hated what I felt now, the burning in my throat, the reason I was running. I hated that my thoughts were no longer mine alone, except for rare moments like these. I hated that I could never go out into the sunlight. I used to love the sun, the way it sparkled and gleamed off of my golden locks. Now my hair wasn't the only thing sparkling. I hated also how it had turned the violets of my eyes to topaz. Then again, maybe it was good I didn't have that reminder. Most of all, I hated that I was empty. There was nothing inside of me, and never could be, never would be.

I hated that I was a vampire.

Oh, he thought that he was _saving_ me when he pulled the broken, bleeding body that was Rosalie Hale from the snowy ground that night. But he was wrong. I would rather be dead. Angles were beautiful too. And they, unlike the creature I had become, weren't evil.

I quickened my pace then, pushing myself to my physical limits, trying to escape the dark road my thoughts had turned onto. It was probably futile, though, as my thoughts were always dark these days.

I closed my eyes as I ran, letting my other senses guide me through the now thinning web of trees. I let my hearing rove out into the forest, seeking something large enough to satisfy my thirst. My sensitive nose picked up every smell on the breeze blowing from the East as I headed North, higher into the mountain, but they were all varying degrees of unappealing, ranging from boring to downright repulsive. I had vowed not to hunt humans, but was at least a carnivore too much to ask? One little mountain lion?

My sensitive ears picked up promising sounds then, coming from the Northwest. Growling, claws tearing into flesh. One large, strong heart beating. And another, smaller heart, weaker, and racing with fright.

There was no wind to bring me the scent, and I was still fairly new at this, at divining the type of animal from the sounds, but I thought it could be a bear, probably, and its prey. A dear, maybe. I hated that this was what I was now, but I tried to let my instincts take over as I followed the promising sounds west.

It was not until I was almost upon it, until I had broken into the clearing where my prey waited, that I realized _exactly _what I was hunting, as there had been no breeze to bring me the scent.

An enormous grizzly bear stood at the far end of the clearing, towing over its cowering and barely conscious prey, which was, **not **as I had assumed, a deer or elk.

A human man, backed up against a wall of granite rock, bleeding and week, but still struggling to stand and fight.

A thousand thoughts raced through my mind in that instant, the instant I realized what he was. I could control myself around humans, if I kept my distance, and if their skin remained intact. But here was blood spilled all around me, wasting on the sun-burnt grass. I could hear the wet, appealing sound of his heartbeat, and, even with no breeze, there was enough spilt blood that I could smell it, I could even envision the taste. . .

He would die anyways, I reasoned with myself, he was too badly injured, not even the most skilled doctors could save him now, regardless, how could he get to them? I would just be speeding the inevitable, otherwise, his precious blood would be wasted, soaking into the earth.

But still, was it evil to drink from a human, even if he was dying? What would Carlisle say when he knew? And he would know, my eyes would tell all. But the scent was calling to me. . .

This all flowed through my mind in less than a second, but, even though I had not yet decided, my body reacted independently of my mind, lurching into a hunting crouch.

The bear was almost finished playing with him now - he was about to die, so I prepared to spring, my thirst and the smell winning out above my better instincts, but then I froze.

The bear swiped once more at the man's face, in a gesture uncannily similar to a human's slap, causing the human's head to turn in my direction for the first time.

It was the face that captivated me, that froze me mid-spring. Even with his expression twisted in pain, his skin bleached white with fear, pain, and blood loss, and stained with his own blood, there was an innocence to it that seemed out of place in a grown man. It was a handsome face, even contorted in agony, with dimples that showed even as he grimaced in pain, and surrounded by beautiful, though, at the moment matted, black curls. It rang a bell, a dim human memory, and suddenly the picture shifted.

I ran forward now, but my object was not to kill. It was to save. Because, in that instant, the black-haired man had become the center of my existence. He could not die. I wouldn't allow it. A bubble of sound, an enraged growl burst forth from me, but it was not the growl of a hunter, warning its prey, but the growl of a defender, a protector, saying _get the hell away from me._

In less than a second, a new plan took shape in my mind. Because it wasn't true that he was hopeless and helpless. As long as his heart kept on beating, there was one thing that could save him.

It was not until I actually had him in my arms - I had quickly sent the bear off, not even bothering to kill it - that I realized the flaw in my plan.

I was a vampire, not even half a decade old. And while I was a strict vegetarian, and good at it, I was still a vampire. I never let myself into such close contact with humans, to resist temptation. And this one was less than two feet away from my face, and bleeding profusely.

I cut off the air to my lungs, and tore my eyes away from the bright ruby blood pulsing out of the gashes in his chest. My eyes locked onto his face, and I was struck again by the innocence, reminded of Vera's little Henry.

Then my eyes found his, deep blue, delirious from blood loss, but wide with wonder, and I knew I could do this.

I hated myself for what I knew I was going to do. The life I would be condemning him to. But, I knew, in that instant, that I needed him. I knew he would be the one thing that could make my living hell a little better. The third thing I would love about this life. And so I started running.

I didn't breathe once as I flew over the ground, faster than I'd ever run before. And I never, not once, took my eyes from his. I didn't breathe, but I listened, to make sure his heart kept on beating.

Thanks to Edward, Carlisle already knew what was going on. But he still gave me one intense, serious look as I entered our home. I didn't need Edward's gift to know the silent question he asked me. "Are you sure, Rosalie? Do you really want to do this to him?" I knew that Carlisle would do it for me, but he knew how much I hated this life. He probably thought so little of me for it, but I knew he couldn't hate me more than I hated myself. Still, I nodded. "Please."

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I couldn't look as Carlisle actually did it, but I forced myself to look when it was done, once Carlisle was sure he would be safe, and had left. I made myself listen to every one of his tortured screams, appreciate each new wave of agony as it washed over his face. How well I remembered this feeling. If I could have tears, they would be pouring down my face, as I watched this man, whose name I did not yet know, but who I knew I loved, suffer this unbearable pain.

Carlisle checked back in every hour or so, and both he and Esme kept returning to try and persuade me to leave, as I had still not hunted. I shook my head every time. It was true, my thirst was burning, and the smell of his blood, although marred by the bite of chemicals Esme had used to clean the area, made it that much worse, but I needed to be here.

The seconds ticked by slowly, so slowly, as I had to watch every moment of his suffering, but finally, three days had passed, and his heart, so strong, so vital, beat once more, and stopped. An eerie silence filed the house, and Edward, Esme, and Carlisle ghosted to my side.

The man on the cot sat up slowly, and looked at us with his strong new eyes for the first time. As mine met his, now ruby red rather than gold, two words escaped my lips. "I'm sorry."

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**So, as always, thank you for reading! If you liked this (or even if you didn't, I guess) please review? Should I keep going with this? I do have ideas for another chapter or two. Would you be interested in seeing similar things for the other Cullen couples, ie., Esme and carlisle and Alice and Jasper? **

**And, now I feel compelled to say sorry to my faithful _Believer_ fans that you don't get an update today. Hopefully within the next few days. I think I'm having a bit of a problem with this next chapter. And then, to my new readers, if you liked this, please check out my other story!!!**

**Thank you!**

**Skysong. :)**


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